The life of a Saar Riesling grower is not an easy one. Possibly one of the coldest and most marginal corners of Germany, the Saar can produce some of the world’s great white wine in hot sunny years such as 1990. However, these are usually outnumbered by cold wet years resulting in over astringent and unripe wines. There are a small band of growers though who have a distinct advantage over the rest in the land that they own. A handful of Saar vineyards are steep enough and exposed enough to ensure a decent level of grape ripening even in poor years. Hanno Zilliken is fortunate enough to have sizeable holdings in Saarburg’s great vineyard, the steep south-facing Rausch. He exploits these slate based vines to the maximum through careful pruning and hand selection. When the wine is pressed, it gently descends by gravity into the oak casks lying in Hanno’s dark damp cellars. The wines are prime examples of Saar Riesling, being mouthwateringly taut, mineral and sophisticated.

Nearly all the quality vineyards of the Saar face south, in an effort to counter the cold weather by harvesting as much sun as possible to achieve ripeness. These are perhaps the steeliest of all the wines found in Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but this combination with the marked acidity means that when on song, the balance between acidity and late harvest honeyed ripeness found here can be unbeatable.

One of the world’s noblest grape varieties, Riesling produces scented, refreshing, mineral wines from dry to lusciously sweet. Its bad reputation, tarnished by the cloying and completely unrelated Liebfraumilch, is one of the wine world’s great injustices. Its heartland is the steep Mosel and Rheingau valleys of Germany, where it produces floral spritzy off-dry to medium wines packed with lime and apple fruit or, when affected by botrytis, honeyed apricot characteristics. In Alsace, Austria’s Wachau and Germany’s Franken there are some exhilarating, complex dry versions that work very well with Oriental fusion foods, as well as some stunning sweet versions. Some superb lively fruit-forward styles are cropping up in New Zealand, Constantia in South Africa and the cooler parts of Australia and California.

Item added to basket

Tax Status Explained

IB stands for In Bond. Wines that are stored In Bond have not had UK Duty and VAT paid on them.

Most of our wines are available for purchase under bond, as fine wines often need to be laid down in order to allow them to mature. Many clients choose therefore to store them in our bonded warehouse and pay the tax as and when they wish to get the wines delivered. Please note that Wines purchased In Bond can be exported to non-EU countries without the need for Duty and VAT to be paid.

DP stands for duty paid. If you wish to get wines delivered for drinking, the duty and VAT will need to be paid as it leaves its bonded state in the warehouse. The wine is then said to be duty paid.

All taxes must be paid in order for us to be authorised to ship or deliver wine (unless the wine is bonded and being moved to another bonded warehouse or being shipped directly outside of the EU.)

EP stands for En Primeur. These wines are currently held with the Estate and Domaine’s we work with and will be shipped in due course.